Changing the World with Social Entrepreneurship

On Dec. 8th, the Horyou Team attended the 2014 edition of Le Monde debate about sustainable development. It was a great day where social entrepreneurs met and shared their projects and ideals behind them. We could not resist sharing some inspiring projects with you, projects that are creating new and sustainable alternatives for our societies, while following people’s dreams and values. Let’s start this journey through social entrepreneurship. Fasten your seatbelt!

First stop: food-wasting solution
We had the pleasure to meet Shéhrazade Schneider and Elodie Le Boucher, who have launched Simone Lemon project. What is it about? Very simple: A lot of fruits and veggies are thrown away for aesthetic reasons by mass distribution outlets – too small, not shiny enough, not round enough. Who cares, right? As long as it is tasty! This is exactly what brought these two social entrepreneurs together to launch Simone Lemon. The idea? Use non-marketed food products and make tasty dishes. And because food wasting does not concern only mass distribution, they wanted to go further with a concept whose success has already been proved in many countries: offer a unique price for 100g of food, whatever the dish is, so people can choose the amount of food they need. Their restaurant should open its doors in Paris in May. We really look forward to it!

Second stop: science-oriented social good
“Not everybody can be a social entrepreneur, but everybody can be an actor.” These are the words of Sarah Mariotte, co-director at Ashoka France/Belgium/Switzerland. Project SOScience! surely agrees with this statement. There are so many ways to do social good and positively bring our societies toward more sustainability and solidarity. And we were very happy to meet co-founder Mélanie Marcel, who explained the purpose of this project. SoScience! is a pioneering startup company, specializing in responsible research, bringing together social entrepreneurs and scientists to tackle today’s social and environmental challenges. SOScience! provides responsible research services to social entrepreneurs and companies, promoting a tighter collaboration between different actors of social change. Science as a means to social good is a big challenge, as science and research laboratories are often criticized for their short-term, profit-oriented strategy.

Third stop: Let’s re-enchant the world!
There are so many projects that are shaping a new and sustainable world. And this debate gave us the opportunity to have a glimpse at this amazing social good blast happening everywhere. This is the kind of glimpse that gives you energy, optimism and inspiration. That is exactly why co-founder of the Colibri movement Cyril Dion and French actress Mélanie Laurent decided to bring light to social good projects happening in nine European countries and made a film out of it called “Demain” (Tomorrow). We had the chance to discover the trailer of the movie with the attendance of Dion himself and we really wanted to share this with you!

What else is there to say? Nothing but Dream, Inspire and Act.

To find out more projects featured during the 2014 Le Monde debate, click here